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I like reading books, I usualy read fantasy stuff with action in it. I read the Redwall Books, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter books, and James Bond books by Ian Fleming and Raymond Benson. Starship Troopers is another good one and I can't forget Jurassic Park, the (very) violent B-movie that you read. Your favorites....

Stupid White Men-Michael Moore.

Classics:
I'm a big fan of Charles Dickens.  Also, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME are worthy of multiple readings.

Contemporary:
I like anything by Stephen Hunter.  His novel DIRTY WHITE BOYS would make a great movie.  The book INCIDENT AT TWENTY-MILE by Trevanian (the author of THE EIGER SANCTION) is absolutely riveting.  It's a western about a psycho who terrorizes a small town near a mining camp.  I also enjoy Elmore Leonard's books.  PRONTO was very good.

Pulp:
I have been buying all of the DOC SAVAGE paperback novels . . . I have almost the whole collection and I am working on reading them all.  I have also started buying all of the similar AVENGER paperbacks.  This is GREAT trash from the 1930s and 40s.  If you have never read these stories, they are sort of a cross between Indiana Jones and the Green Hornet.  Bad guys, evil plots, exotic locations, cliffhanger situations . . . classic crap!

Most anything by James Thurber or S.J. Perelman.

I reread Tolkien's Trilogy every couple of years, even though there are spots that drag horribly.

Recently read two of the best novels I've ever experienced, Dreamland and Paradise Alley, historical novels of old New York by (I think) Kevin Baker.  Incredibly rich & believable, with wonderfully complete and human characters.

Genre?  Never got into fantasy outside of Tolkien but I love old-style (30s 40s 50s) science fiction.

Not a big mystery fan, but love Raymond Chandler's writing.  How can prose be that purple, almost self-parodying, yet be that GOOD?

Tomorrow's list would probably be totally different...

Love the Lord of the Rings series, even the Silmarillion.
Right now I'm really enjoying Dracula.

I liked the Silmarillion too, once I gave up trying to keep all the names straight!

Here are a few. Note that I really lean towards the Science Fiction/Fantasy  group.

The  Entire Dune Series (Frank Herbert can be a tough read, but worth it)

Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit  (Didn't read these until I was in my 40's, didn't know what I was missing)

Anything by H. G. Wells (Wish someone would do a period piece movie from War of the Worlds, it could really be scary if done right)

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert  Heinlein

The Stainless Steel  Rat series by Harry Harrison (the role Bruce Campbell was meant to play).

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy  Trilogy (in five parts) by Douglas Adams

My all-time favorite author is Daniel Pinkwater. If you haven't read his stuff, it's probably because it's usually in the children's section, but his novels are some of the most insane things I've ever read. My favorite of his books (and probably favorite of all time) is Borgel. It starts out as a typical "boy befriends eccentric great uncle" story, but about ten chapters in it takes a left turn when they start flying a used car through "time, space, and the other thing," and eventually visit a touristified Hell on a quest to find the Great Popsicle. Words don't do it justice; it's a classic of deadpan weirdness.

I'm currently reading "Electric Jesus Corpse" by Carlton Mellick III, which retells the story of Christ, except Jesus is a disco dancer in a post-apocalyptic world run by zombies, and his apostles are all sorts of deviants who hate him. The best characters are Thaddeus, the punk, John, the pimp, Phillip, the cokehead jazz musician, and Judas, the zombie-killing alien with Tourette's who wears a smiley face mask.

I also love Hunter S. Thompson's writing style; gotta love Gonzo journalism!

The Marching Season & The English Assasin, both by Daniel Silva
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Survivor - Chuck Phalanuik (i know i messed up his last name, same dude who wrote Fight Club)

A late addition to my list is James Clavell.  KING RAT, TAI-PAN, GAI-JIN, SHOGUN . . . all page-turning epics.

I've always meant to read Shogun. Thanks for reminding me Burgo. If you like samurai/ancient Japan stuff you should catch the Last Samurai. They did a great job with making the martial arts look as realistic as possible.

Yes.  I saw it with some of my Aikido folks, and we were pointing out all the various moves.

Did you catch the War of the Worlds radio broadcast on Glenn Beck's affiliates LAST Halloween (2002)??  They did a pretty good job (I only heard parts of it)...I THINK it is possible to get it from Beck's web site.

www.glennbeck.com

but you'd have to look around for it.

I used to read a lot of fiction (spy/suspense novels) now I read mostly non-fiction and historical fiction.  And, the Bible.

History - 'They Met at Gettysburg,' 'Old Ironsides,' 'History of the American Sailing Navy,' 'Naval History of World War II,' 'Battles of Ireland,' 'October Sky,' etc.

Action/Adventure - 'K2: Triumph and Tragedy,' 'In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods,' 'Into Thin Air,' 'In the Shadow of Denali,' 'Eiger Dreams,' 'A Himalayan Odyssey,' 'The Seven Summtis,' etc.

Historical Fiction - anything by Patrick O'Brian, and I plan to begin CS Forrester books, too.

How-To's and guide books

We have hundreds of books, including a LOT of textbooks (science, math, physics, biology) and believe it or not, I read them sometimes for 'enjoyment.'

Fiction wise, I still enjoy the occasional Stephen King, but I prefer his short stories to the novels (he can be long winded).  But recent SK novels I really liked include Desparation and DreamCatcher.

I'm embarassed to admit it but my favorite books are humor. I enjoy the Lampoon book that has sign blunders and classified ad blips. the "Letters from a Nut" series really suits my taste. This year my pick for a gift idea is "This book will change your life"...if you read the book, it literally will. (Each day tells you something new to do, for example one day gives you the number for the KKK headquarters and tells you to prank call them) It is absolutely one of the most hillarious books just based on the idea that you could really amuse yourself with some of 365 instructions.

I'm more of a movie person so my book collection is thin and i tend to resell them back to used stores. What I have kept is alot of Stephen King books (mostly the older ones, collected stories) although in recent years his larger books tend to be really bad, he always has a way of making it winded and then coming up with some ridiculous subplot or ending.

 i really enjoyed 'the hot zone' and 'flags of our fathers'. And I have a Poe book from the 70's i've had for all my life..complete wish very cheesy illustrations and my favorite story 'the masque of red death'. My brother is really literate, they have a LIBRARY and love being edukatid people. I guess i never revisit a book as much as I do a movie so it makes more sense for me to put my money in movies. I would hate to stare at a collection of books I may never read again that value in the tens of thousands.

I'm a big fan of action type novels.  I've got the entire Ian Fleming James Bond series, and a few by Raymond Benson.  

I'm also a fan of Clive Cussler and the fantastic Matthew Reilly.

If you read Reilly's stuff you'll wish they were made into a movie: non-stop butt-kicking action all round.  Highly reccommended.

Also love Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.  For a bit of a laugh I'll read Red Dwarf.

I've got alot of classics at home from my Literature subjects, such as Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice and I actually didn't think they were that bad.

I thumbed through "This Book Will Change Your Life" last time I was at a bookstore. Looked cool, though a lot of it is stuff I'd do anyway. :)

Forgot to mention Flannery O'Connor. Best plot twists EVER.

I think I've read more books than I've seen movies. Almost all non-fiction in the area's of Religion, Philosophy, Mythology, Occult, Martial Arts, History, and Biographies. I can't get into non-fiction (though it has been said that fiction is sometimes more true). How is it that I can watch a movie based on fiction, but not read a fiction book? It has something to do with creating images or just the creative process. I've read almost non-stop for 15 years on all subjects and have oddly started watching film for the past 4-5 years. Once or twice a year I find a great book to read, but most subject matter I'm quite familiar with, so it's hard you cover old ground twice. Things have a natural order or process that can be diserned when contiplating them.

It's hard for me to get into a story about "Johnny" someone and what he has to say. I have about 15 volumes of Master Plots that give me interesting passages and the basic concept of the best of the best in fiction.

As far as my favorite book it would be my own non-fiction book called BOOK OF THE THIRD DAY (a.k.a The Book of Scott) that I'm having trouble finishing. After I write something I can't stand reading it. It's like watching a video or listening to an audio of yourself. After writing a dozen pages I stop and put it aside till I get to starting up again, but then I have trouble continuing were I left off. I need like months to myself to complete it. It's all mapped out, but it may not be for me to write this one. It's of a strong religious nature that has never been heard before. It's of a Divine nature. Were is a scribe when you need one? Well, I'm sure it will turn out as intended someday.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Glaxaxy -  There is actually a book called The Ultimate Hitchhiker's  Guide That has all the books plus it even includes mostly Harmless and I think it has an extra chapter that is not in any of the other books.


I really perfer Anne Rice,(let's see......I've read Taltos, Lasher, The Witching Hour, The Vampire Lestat, The Vampire Cronicles, plus many more than I can't remember off the top of my head) Stephen King( Needful Things, Carrie, Christine, The Talisman. The Green Mile, Pet Cemetary)  I remember watching The movie Pet Cemetary, I didn't like the way they ended it, it just didn't seem right.  I've read most of the V.C. Andrews books but I think the only ones that were worth reading were the first two series she had out The Flowers in the Attic and The Dark Angel series.  The other were written by a ghost writer.  They were supposed to have used her notes to come up with all these books after she died in 1988.
Oh and I like reading Calvin and Hobbs and Peanuts

Smiles, I Have Poe too.  My favorite of his is The Black Cat and his poem Annabel Lee, I forgot all about him.  What's funny is that I spend so much time working I never seem to have any time for reading anymore.  I used to be able to read about 1 book in a couple of days, not I try to start a book and I just never get around to reading the rest of it.

Ahhh, Vermin Boy!  It's been a while since the name of Flannery OConnor has been mentioned, and on THIS phorum???  Her tome of complete stories sits on my bookshelf, spine falling apart, pages coming out--God, the woman was fabulous!!
Lovecraft was and is my favorite horror fantacist, Stephen R Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is IMO among the best fantasy stuff ever written, 2nd to JRR Ts Lord of the Rings.  
Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes, of course Schultz's Peanuts gallery, Gary Larson's Far Side (the grosser the better)--essential for an after-work laugh.

The Lord of the rings books and the Hobbit are some of my favorite books.
Also Im a huge fan of Stephen King.I love his Dark Towers series of books, Which I think are some truly remarkable works of fantasy.But my favorite books of his The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile.

I would have to say "Ender's Game, " and "Ender's Shadow" (Both by the great Orson Scott Card).  Fabulous books, even though they both tell the same basic story.

I also read other hard sci-fi (Aurther C. Clark is one of my faves - "Rendesvous With Rama" was absolutely fantastic), but I can't handle space opera in books - only on the big screen.  

As much as I hate to admit it, I LOVE the Harry Potter series.  The books are absolutely fabulous, everything one could want, IMHO.  I was dead set against them until I got dragged (kicking and screaming) to the first movie.  I've been a fan ever since.

Lemony Snickett also has a great series going - "A Series of Unfortunate Events".  Really good stuff.  The prose is somehow very poetic.  It's pretty language, and I like that.  I am rather fond of the English language when it is properly used.  

Of course, I also like Stephen King, although I tend to prefer his short stories to his novels.  I think my favorite of his was "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", though.  Suspenceful and interesting, without King's frequently overbearing characters.  A good read, and not wordy.

do you study Aikido?

Yeah, I need to read more of O'Connor's stuff-- So far I've only read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People." I was turned onto her stuff by my high school English teacher, who handed me a copy of Good Country People after class, telling me, "It's right up your alley."

Aha! THe far side, i forgot about that. Anyone own that mammoth collection that just came out? I want it...oh yes...i want all 80lbs of it


by kinds short stories i mean like "Night shift" . I am not easily scared, in fact i'm the one scaring others..heh. But that boogyman story when i read it years ago made me shut my closet door all the way for a good while after that read.

I also read (past tense) ann rice..i liked the vampire chronicles before they were a big hyped up movie..i could never get into those witching books and I stopped the vampire ones after the 4th...which i actually liked the most and cannot remember the title to.  I also like reading where I learn things, I go through phases where i'll learn how to speak sign language..but because i don't know anybody deaf i'll forget it. That was extremely fun and easy to learn. German on the other hand has proved a challenge and I fell out of my studies.

Jurassic Park definitely rules.  Also:
Neverwhere, American Gods, and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman (the last being a collaboration with Terry Pratchett).
Anything H.P. Lovecraft.
The Necroscope and Titus Crow series by Brian Lumley.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest by I forgot the author's name and am too lazy to look it up right now.

Brother R

"It" by Stephen King, "Carrion Comfort" By Dan Simmons, "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton, and "The Holy Bible". I have plenty more..too many to name.

My all time favorite is called "Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods" by Robert W Smith.  Smith went to China in the 1960's and studied what are called the "internal arts" in martial arts: Tai Chi, Bagua, and Hsing-I.  Aikido falls into that category too but comes from what Japan? not China.  It's him meeting and learning from various old masters of various moralities and temperments.  


Another bok I like alot is "Hollywod Babylon" by Kenneth Anger.  It's old scandals and stuff from old Hollywod, like Fatty Arbuckle and all that stuff.

There is this book and I kindof forgot about it until I was looking at my bookself.  It's called Historic Haunted America.  It comes out around halloween.  It's a bunch of ghost stories from around the US.  There's at least 3 or 4 stories per state.  I absoluted love the book.  I think the stories are different for each year, I saw one of them in a book store and meant to go back and get it but forgot all about it.  I'm also kind of interested in herbs so I have a few of those books.  Anythings that deals with ancient eygpt, mummies, anthropology, cultures, mythology.  I also have a book about Palm reading.  That can be pretty interesting if you are into that sort of thing.  I also have a couple books for tarot cards.  (Yes, I have a deck.) I have a book on Wicca.  (And No I am not a witch)  I'm just find the occult something that I like reading about.  I like reading the odd stuff, you know 101 uses for a dead Cat type of book.  I have a book on massage that I really like because I've learn a few good techniques from it.  I like useful books, but I wasn't very happy when I had to change the headlights on my car and the book is saying take the bumper off.  Instead there was a latch holding it in from the back.  Needless to say that bumper stayed on.

I can't get enough classic sf. This would be the stuff from the 50s to the 70s, by guys like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, Piers Anthony, Alfred Bester and a whole bunch of others. I'm currently reading Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke.

I read every night at bedtime, and generally go through a book every week or two, depending on the length. When I go to the gym with any consistancy, that increases, because it's a great way to pass the time on the stairmaster.

Can't decide which I enjoy more, the short story compilations, from the old sf magazine days, or the novels. Novels allow more depth, and more involvement in the stories, but the shorter pieces have a lot of punch, and can usually be read in a sitting.

I think I like the sf novels of the 70s the best. There just seemed to be an explosion of it in that decade. People were beginning to take it seriously, and I think the average person's knowledge of science and technology was increasing. Real technological advances and scientific theories were coming faster, society was changing, and writers had a lot to inspire them. At the same time, many the leading writers came from the old magazine tradition, in many cases mentored by John W. Campbell himself, and the flavour of 50s and 60s sci fi was still there.

Hard to list just a few favourite books, but the top ones for me would have to be:

Man Plus by Frederik Pohl - brilliant book
The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle
Ringworld by Larry Niven
John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy

Yes, Aikido is Japanese.

 "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King.  This is a non-fiction work in which King analyzes, or at least describes, the horror genre.  He covers books, short stories, tv, radio and film.  It is an interesting read, and I think many of the denizens of this phorum would find it so.

As a brief example, he does discuss why older horror movies, with their 'primitive' effects and cinematography, fail with modern audiences while they were extremely scary at the time.  On the other hand, he also discusses why other older movies remain scary after a generation or two.

At the very least, he mentions many authors that some of you may enjoy exploring.  Within the general "horror genre" descriptor is included some science fiction and fantasy.

The DragonLance series (original chronicles and such by Weis and Hickman) are probably my al time favorite books.  I bought them when I was a kid and lost track of them through the years, or more likely my mom probably sold them at a garage sale.  So a couple years ago I got the itch to read them and I had to buy them all over again!

Lord of the Rings
Catch-22
Huck Finn (best novel I have ever read)
and...
Favorite Children's Book: Miss Suzy (I know that sounds gay coming from a guy, but the book featured a kickass battle between toy soldiers and evil squirrels).

My main reason for posting that is to extend this thread longer than "I hate nudity."

Since you all have opened the Children's Books door, and I have in the past year or so started reading them (I have a 16 mo old daughter), here's my amended list of Favorite Books, all by Sandra Boynton:

The Going to Bed Book
Opposites
Horn To Toes and In Between
A to Z

There are others we read ... you get the idea...

The Velveteen Rabbit was a favorite children's book of mine, somewhat of a pinnochio story but if you ever re-read it it's very touching.

Where the red fern grows was a book I really enjoyed when I was 10.

The Giving Tree I recently read at the bookstore and really liked it, even tho there is a picture of the author's head fully blown up covering the back page....quite scary.

I bought Miss Spider's Tea party because of the awsome illustrations, I am big on illustrations that really cater to a child's imagination, and after going into the children's sections and finding very few books that had solid sketches or illustrations, I decided when I see one I'll buy one for a child I know. Illustrations used to be an artform, and a great many of the books in stores today are very mediocre. In fact "the velveteen rabbit" has the rabbit looking very...dorky (and I so hate using an 8th grade term like that)

Lastly but not leastly, Puppies are like that. I loved this book when i was 3, it was one of the books I could read myself. I don't have any of my childhood books, except a book of children's verses by robert louis stephenson I think and various comic books. I guess they don't sell it new anymore.

As for kids books, probably my favorite was Richard Scary's (how is that for a kid's authors name?) Busy Busy World.

Sounds a lot like the sort of things my wife enjoys, Susan. In fact, just this week, she quoted out of the Velveteen Rabbit in a funeral sermon - the part where the skin horse describes what it means to be real. I was getting teary just proofreading it. I'm told it had that effect on everyone.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

"As for kids books, probably my favorite was Richard Scary's (how is that for a kid's authors name?) Busy Busy World."

raj - is that the one with the gold bug hiding somewhere on every page?  I think that was like the original Where's Waldo - there were all these big scenes of animals running around a town, and on every page there was this little gold bug.  Sometimes he was hiding really well, and sometimes he was hiding in plain sight.  I think it was Richard Scary - am I right?

Another one that rocked at a slightly lower reading level was Go Dog Go.  The art was excellent - I WANTED that houseboat!

Hopefully this'll push the number of replies higher than those in that damned "I hate nudity" thread.

"Breakfast of Champions" - It's tough to pick just ONE Kurt Vonnegut book, but if I had to, this would be it.  Makes me laugh every single time I read it.

"The Stand" - I'm a big King fan, but this is the only one of his books where I felt like every word counted while I was reading it, and nothing really seemed like padding.  And I was really depressed to not be able to spend any more time with the characters after I finished it.  Then I hated myself for being such a weiner about a book.

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" - I was reading this to my kids a few years back, and it suddenly dawned on me how weird the whole thing was.  Not just "Oh, look.  That fish is driving a car" weird.  Full on bizarre.

Look what we found
In the park
In the dark
We shall take him home
We shall call him Clark

(Accompanying illustration shows two kids toting some hideous walrus creature home in a tank full of water).

God I love that book...

I'm a restless reader. I've read about a book per week since I was 10 or so. Most of the stuff I read are best sellers, but I also read lots of crime (James Ellroy is a personal favourite, specially "Blood on the moon" and "The black Dahlia"), sci-fi (mostly Bradbury, Windham, Heinlein and Phillip K. Dick) and horror (Peter Straub and Lovecraft). Probably my favourite novels right now are "Captain Corelli's mandolin" (can't remember the author right now), "The talented Mr. Ripley", by Patricia Highsmith and Paul Auster's "The moon palace". My present reading is the first book in the naval series that inspired "Master and commander".

I can name two books that literally changed my life.  WATCHMEN by Alan Moore broadened my mental horizons and taught me that comics can be so much more than what they had previously been.  THE ILLUMINATUS TRILOGY by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson didn't broaden my horizons, it blew them up and replaced them with technicolor backdrops of manic hilarity.

I love the work of Philip K. Dick.  I used to read mainly science fiction, but have recently gotten into a "literature" kick, mostly prompted by the guys I work with.  Recently read POSSESSION by A.S. Byatt, which is a love story for nerds.  Also, SILENCE by Shusaku Endo which is a fascinating novel about the arrival of Christianity on Japan's shores.

My pick for the year is probably BLANKETS by Craig Thompson.  It's a huge graphic novel, a coming of age biography.  It's also exactly what comics needs right now.

Also, I just thought I'd mention Daniel Pinkwater's ALAN MENDELSOHN, THE BOY FROM MARS was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

Finally, I just thought I'd mention DARK TIDE: THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD OF 1919 is a fascinating account of one of history's stranger events.

I read a great Robert Anton Wilson book about 14 years ago. He can blow your mind away. Well, it was one of my favorite at the time. Can't remember the name of it anymore.